A Different World
by Cyblade Silver
Summary: A tragedy steals the lives of one of Usagi's close friends, so Usagi and her parents open their hearts to him and take him in as one of their own. Now, with someone else in on her secret, Sailor Moon's struggle will change.


**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't claim ownership over anything related to Sailor Moon; you can thank Naoko Takeuchi for that. This story uses the characterizations in the anime (Japanese dub, of course) and some elements of the manga, but those will mostly show up later on. There's also hints of my original inspiration for this story scattered here and there; see if you can find them. ;)_

**A Different World**

Usagi Tsukino was taking a walk in the park with her father; when she felt a sharp, sudden jolt of pain. Falling to her knees, Usagi was overcome by the feeling of being needed by someone. Someone she knew was in grave danger, and would probably die unless Usagi came to help him.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

"He's calling to me," Usagi muttered, looking out to her left, where she could feel the call the strongest.

"Who is, sweetie?"

"Can't you hear him, Daddy? He's crying," Usagi insisted, already turning and starting to run off.

"Wait!" Usagi's father exclaimed, grabbing his daughter by the shoulder before she could get too far. "What are you talking about? Who's calling to you?"

"There's no more time!" Usagi shouted, wrenching herself out of her father's gentle hold and sprinting off again. "I have to help him!"

"Usagi, wait!"

Following the call that was getting weaker the more she delayed, Usagi ran as fast as her smaller legs would carry her. _I have to help him. I have to hurry, or it'll be too late. Oh, I hope I get there in time!_ Puffing, Usagi finally caught sight of the burning house. She had known in the intellectual sense that Trevor and his family lived on the edge of the park where she and her father had been walking, but she hadn't yet visited her best friend at his house.

Now, running into what was likely to be a great deal of danger, Usagi could surprisingly feel no fear for her own life. But for Trevor, who was obviously in a great deal of pain, she _could_ fear for him. Looking around and the burning wreck of what was probably Trevor's house, Usagi almost immediately spotted her friend. Running over to the flaming piece of wood that was pinning him to the ground, Usagi bit her knuckles as she tried to think of some way to help.

There was no chance of her being able to move that heavy wood on her own, even if it hadn't been on fire. Luckily, her father was just coming into her field of vision.

"Daddy! Daddy, help me! Over here!"

Running up to his daughter, Kenji Tsukino looked down in shocked horror at what she was pointing to. Trevor Kaneyama, a boy that Ken himself had been coming to love as another brother for Usagi, lay pinned under a burning piece of wood. The boy was unconscious, thank God for small favors, but if they didn't get him help soon, he would be dead.

"Usagi, honey, I need you to do something for me," Ken said, deliberately injecting calm that he didn't really feel into his voice.

"What is it, Daddy? Will it help him?" Usagi demanded.

"Yes, it will, but only if you do it fast, and do just what I tell you to, okay?" Ken asked.

"Okay," Usagi said quickly, nodding.

"All right, here's my phone; call the number 119 and tell them what's going on here."

"All right, Daddy," she said, taking the phone and proceeding to dial.

There was really nothing more that could be done at the time, so Kenji was forced to wait in silent helplessness while his daughter dialed. He could almost hear the boy's flesh sizzling and charring as he watched. When Usagi began frantically describing what was going on, stumbling over her words in her efforts to tell the emergency services what was going on, Kenji knew that he would have to step in if he wanted Trevor to survive.

"Honey, why don't you give me the phone? The firefighters are going to need to know where Trevor is, so they can help him."

"Okay, Daddy," she said, handing him the phone. "But, can you please tell them to hurry?"

"Don't worry, honey," he said, projecting calm that he didn't entirely feel so that Usagi would calm down. "I'll make sure they get here as quickly as they can."

The next few hours were a blur of motion to Kenji: watching as Trevor was pulled free from the remains of his burning house by the ambulance crew and loaded up into the back of it, telling the EMS crew that his daughter had been a friend of his and that she would probably want to visit him at the hospital when she could, and being told in turn that they hadn't been able to find any other living people inside that house. Knowing that Usagi wouldn't want one of her best friends to end up in and orphanage or anywhere where she wouldn't be able to stay in touch with him, Kenji was quick to offer his home as a place that Trevor could stay.

At least until his remaining family could be contacted; Kenji didn't know just when that would be, but he hoped that he, Ikouko, and Usagi wouldn't have the time to get attached. There were few things more painful than having to separate from someone that you had come to love as a member of your own family. He knew that better than most.

The next few hours were a long, slow blur: watching over Trevor as he was taken to the hospital; seeing the horrible burns covering almost the entire back of his body, from the back of his shoulders and neck to the middle of his calves; telling the police and the doctors all of what he knew about what had happened to Trevor Kaneyama and the rest of his family. Finding out that Usagi's friend was alone in the world now, that the boy's life as he knew it was over and he would never really be able to go back to the way he was… it was painful for all of them.

All of them, that is, but Usagi herself; his little girl fussed over Trevor as he lay in his hospital bed whenever she was allowed to go and visit him, but she was always talking to the boy as if he was just sleeping. It was as if, in her mind, Trevor just needed to wake up and then everything would be fine. Kenji knew that it wasn't likely to work out so well, for any of them, but he would have been the first to admit that he didn't really have the heart to say that to Usagi so bluntly.

Maybe it was a weakness, but he didn't like to see his little girl cry.

_~SM~_

Sitting in the hospital room by Trevor's bed, looking down on him as he continued sleeping, Usagi tried to resist the urge to gently rub his back. That had always made _her_ feel better when she wasn't well, but the doctors had said that the burns on Trevor's back were still too sensitive to be touched. She'd seen what was under those bandages when the doctors came in to change them, and she hadn't liked what she'd seen even one bit.

It looked like poor Trevor had been cooked on a skillet; sure, the doctors all _said_ that he was going to get better, but she just that she could make him get better _faster_.

Still, all of that wasn't important right now; Trevor had lost his family in that fire, and since he was one of her best friends, it was only right that she let him share hers. When Trevor's eyes started fluttering, Usagi smiled and leaned down over him.

"Trevor-kun, I hope you're really waking up, because I've got something important to tell you!"

"Usagi-chan?" Trevor's eyes were only slightly opened, but he was awake so that really mattered.

"I hope you get better soon, but I really wanted to tell you something," she said, smiling widely.

"What is it?" Trevor asked; he still looked tired, so Usagi decided to tell him quickly; the other stuff could wait, but this was important.

"Daddy's going to adopt you, Trevor-kun," she said, smiling down at him, even as his eyes began to close again. "We're all going to live together, and you can even be my big brother!"

"Thanks, Usa-ko," Trevor said, closing his eyes. "That's… really nice of you."

Trevor had fallen asleep again, but that didn't matter so much now; he was going to come home with them and be her and Shingo's older brother. Even though he'd lost his entire family, it wouldn't be that bad if she let him share hers.

_~SM~_

The next day, after school, Usagi came with her mother and father back to the hospital where Trevor was staying. While her parents took care of the stuff that they needed to take care of, Usagi made her way through the halls of the hospital on her way to Trevor's room. Her mother and father had been doing a lot of paperwork lately; they said that it was so that Trevor could stay with them and be a part of their family. Usagi was just glad that she didn't have to do any of that herself.

She already had enough paperwork to do; well, homework, but it was still written on paper, so she guessed it counted.

When she made it to Trevor's room again, Usagi saw that he was awake. He seemed confused, though.

"Good afternoon, Trevor," Usagi said, smiling as she made her way over to the chair beside his bed. "Is something wrong?"

"I can't feel my back, Usa-ko," Trevor said, his light brown eyes locking on hers for a long moment.

"What do you mean?" she asked, almost reaching down to touch the gauze wrappings on his back before stopping herself. "I mean, it's good that your back isn't hurting, right?"

"Well, yeah; I mean, I don't _want_ it to hurt, or anything, but I can't even feel the gauze on my back," Trevor turned his head away from her, and Usagi wondered just what was wrong. "I'm kind of scared."

Nibbling her lower lip, Usagi reached down and patted Trevor gently on the back. "Did you feel that, Trevor?"

"Feel what?" he asked, turning to look at her again; Usagi blinked in surprise. "Did you do something, Usa-ko?"

Reaching down again, Usagi pressed her right hand against the middle of Trevor's back. "Can your feel _that_, Trevor-kun?"

"Usagi, I can't feel _anything_ on my back," Trevor said. "I... I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm scared."

Trevor was shaking; Usagi could feel it through her hand, and even through the bandages that were still covering his back. Leaning down, Usagi hugged her new big brother. "Don't worry, Trevor-nii. I'll go talk to one of the doctors. I'm sure they'll be able to help you get better."

"Thanks, Usa-ko," Trevor said, turning to smile softly at her, though he still looked kind of scared.

"Yeah," she said, running her fingers through his black hair. "You just try to sleep and feel better, Trevor-nii. I'll take care of you."

Patting Trevor's head a last time, Usagi left the room. She needed to find the doctors that were taking care of Trevor, so she could talk to them about what was going on. She needed to know why Trevor was so… he wasn't even _hurting_, but he was wrapped up in bandages all the same. She needed to find out what was going on.

She couldn't help Trevor if she didn't know what was happening to him, after all.

_~SM~_

The next day, once she had finished enough of her homework to go and visit Trevor in the hospital, Usagi made her way down the halls to Trevor's room, the same way that she had done ever since that day she had found him. Ever since the fire. When she came into his room, though, she could see Trevor kneeling on his bed. One of the doctors was in the room with him, but the most important thing, the only thing that she took any real notice of, was the large burn.

"Oh! Trevor-kun, your poor back!" she raced over to the bed, climbing onto it and just barely avoiding the doctor and the pile of bandages that he was just scooping up off of Trevor's bed. "Mr. Doctor, are you going to get some special ointment to help heal Trevor's back?"

"I'm afraid that your friend's back isn't going to get any better than this," the doctor said, a gentle expression on his face as he gathered up the last of the bandages that had been wrapped around Trevor's upper-body. "Those burns were just too severe for anything more to be done about them."

"That's sad," she said, sitting down beside Trevor now that the doctor had finished taking the bandages off.

"Usa-ko, the doctor also told me why I can't feel anything on my back." Trevor looked down, and Usagi reached out to hold him as he bit his lower lip. "Or the back of my legs. He said that the burns were so bad that they destroyed all of the nerves." Trevor sighed, and she could feel him starting to cry as she held him tighter. "The doctors all said that I would never be able to feel anything on those parts of my body ever again."

"I'm so sorry, Trevor-nii," she said, hugging him tighter. "I promise, I'll do everything I can to help you." She turned back to look at the doctor. "Mr. Doctor, is Trevor-nii going to be able to come home with us soon?"

"He's being released today, Usagi-san." The doctor said. "Once your father, and his now, I suppose, finishes filling out the last of the paperwork, he'll be able to go home with you."

"That's a good thing," Usagi said. "I'm glad that Trevor-nii is going to be able to come home with us soon."

"Usagi?" Opening her eyes, Usagi looked back up at Trevor. "Thank you, for letting me stay with you."

"Of course, Trevor-nii," she said, hugging him tightly again. "You'll be happy being a part of our family; you'll see."


End file.
